Ocado on the Go for iPhone and Android

With Tesco rolling out its Grocery app to Ovi Store today we decided to take a look at the other end of the food chain (the more upmarket end, if you like). Ocado, the service which delivers Waitrose groceries direct to your door, has both an iPhone and Android version of its Ocado on the Go app allowing you to place orders when out and about.

The apps are virtually identical in terms of layout and functionality. It’s easy to search for products by manually entering search terms or by tapping through the various categories (Food & Drink, House Garden & Pets etc). Both apps also allow you to start an order on your phone and then return to it on your desktop later on, similar to Tesco’s app for Nokia phones.

It’s worth noting that the Android version of Ocado on the Go features a voice search option for phones running Android 2.1/Eclair or higher. This is really useful when searching for things that take longer to type than they do to speak like asparagus or spaghetti, but less so when you’re searching for things like tea. This is probably more down to the software recognising the word as the letter ‘T’ rather than the world’s best hot beverage.

Something that we found with both versions of the app was that you couldn’t create an account from your phone; you’ll have to do that from a computer first. Once you’ve filled up your basket and head to the checkout you can specify when you want your order to be delivered from a list of available times. Delivery slots will be arranged in a list with all unavailable times greyed out.

There’s a separate charge for deliveries and prices increase at peak times (5pm-7pm). Delivery charges range from £2.99 for quieter times to £5.49 for busier hours. Prices of items are generally pretty low with all branded items (PG Tips, Mr. Muscle etc) priced to match those of Tescos. Both apps are free to download from iTunes App Store or the Android Market.